Round the Moon

See if you recognise this: Three men are launched from Florida on a mission to the moon. During the flight an accident knocks them off course, they will now miss the moon. Inventiveness and mathematics allows them the check the build-up of CO2 in the capsule and allows them to loop around the moon, giving them a glimpse of the dark-side before their conical capsule splashes down in the ocean to be picked up by a US naval vessel.

Apollo 13 in 1970?

Actually Jules Verne in 1870.

Really seriously spooky – exactly 100 years apart.

Putting the SERIOUS spookiness to one side, how does this book work as a story?

It's kind of Jekyll & Hyde, you'll have two to three pages of utter hilarity mixed with deep philosophical questioning (very Pratchett), then five to six pages of science or maths explained to you, pretty much textbook style. Given that a lot of the science is now either common knowledge, and the awe-inspiring mysteries that would have drawn you through the dry lectures have now been poked and prodded by Armstrong et al. the book has lost some of it's edge, which is not to fault Mr Verne – just the march of history.

I just feel silly discussing anything else about this book other than the fact that this is Apollo 13, 100 years early!. I just can't get over it.Someone get Tom Hanks a top hat for some re-shoots.